"Can the Americas turn millets from forgotten grains into future staples?'

In global agriculture, few crops embody the intersection of climate resilience, nutrition, and market reinvention as vividly as millets. Once dismissed as "poor man's grains," they are now enjoying a renaissance across Asia and Africa. But as the AgroSpectrum webinar revealed, the real frontier may lie in North and South America—regions that produce significant quantities of millets and sorghum but have yet to translate that production into global food value chains.

- Suchetana Choudhury

The webinar brought together leading voices: Gary Wietgrefe, Author, Agronomist, and Co-Founder of the North American Millets Alliance; Joni Kindwall-Moore, Founder of Snacktivist Foods; Cicero Beserra de Menezes, Sorghum Breeding Lead at Embrapa Maize & Sorghum (Brazil); Sujala Balaji, Founder & CEO of Rainfed Foods; and Dr Don Osborne, Co-Founder of the North American Millets Alliance. Collectively, they painted a picture of untapped potential, structural barriers, and emerging strategies that could reposition millets from birdseed to global trade staples.

North America: Scale Without Visibility

“Most of the millets raised in North America aren’t grown for human consumption,” observed Gary Wietgrefe, setting the tone with a paradox. By his estimates, the United States is the world’s third-largest producer of millet, after India and Nigeria. Yet, less than 5 per cent of its production is exported. Much of it never reaches dinner tables, disappearing instead into livestock feed, forage, and the multi-billion-dollar wild birdseed market.

Introduced into North America about 150 years ago, millets were cultivated primarily for animal feed. Even today, proso millet—grown in just three U.S. states—produces more than Russia, yet remains invisible in human food markets. Canada, for its part, has pioneered pearl and foxtail millet in swath grazing systems, while U.S. conservation agencies sow as much as 200,000 hectares annually for wildlife feed. Perhaps the most striking revelation is the U.S.’s standing in teff, the Ethiopian staple grain. “In the U.S. we consider teff a millet,” Gary said. “We’re actually the second-largest producer of teff grain after Ethiopia—but here, it’s raised largely for forage and livestock, not for human consumption.”